I fell asleep almost immediately upon laying down in bed last night.
And every one of us slept in at least an hour later than usual.
We were exhausted, aching, and satisfied with all we'd gotten done over the past two days.
We spent Monday in the garden trying to rescue our plants after days of heavy rain and hail that battered their leaves and washed away much of our soil.
There was soil to move, seeds to re-cover, thistles to pull, and so much mulching to be done.
And the day was was hot like summer.
So when Lupine asked if we could drive to town to swim in the public pool I realized that we all needed a break. No matter how many starts were left to go in the soil.
And then I reminded her that we had a creek and a swimming hole just beyond the pasture and her mouth dropped open in amazement as she remembered.
Oh yes! That!
There was still much work to be done, but before I knew it we had dropped our tools and were running down to the stream for a cooling dip (and a little knitting and banjo playing, of course).
Oh, my. Just what we needed at the end of a long and busy weekend.
Yes. It was time to put down our tools.
Sometimes it's hard to stop once you've gotten started, isn't it?
The to-do list is always long and always growing. As soon as you cross an item off another one - or two, or three - appear on the list. There is so much to do we could start at sunup and not quit until long after bedtime and barely make a dent.
I began the weekend full-steam, gutting my sewing room and starting over. (Sorry about that "during" photograph above. Scray stuff!)
Cobbled out of a tiny bedroom, the space is way too small for everything I had going in there, so I needed to call a radical do-over.
And for me anyway, I always expect projects like this to take two hours and they usually end up taking two weeks, no matter how many hours I throw at it.
I could have kept at it.
Unending until the work was done, but at what cost? This project can wait, but this day can not. So I seek out balance where I can, pausing for a walk or to read a book to my kids or to churn a batch of ice cream.
Because we have stuff to get done and a life to live - all at once.
So I'm always seeking balance. In my own wonky way.
Because we need to pause. To rest. To play.
We need to say "I've done enough" sometimes, and set down our tools, where ever we stand.
